A recount of the 2016 presidential election that wrapped up last week in Marathon County revealed no machine errors, the county clerk said.
B.C. Kowalski/City Pages
A group of about 15 poll workers completed the local recount, at a cost of about $113,000.
The recount started Dec. 2 across the state at the behest Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein’s campaign, which agreed to pay the estimated $3.9 million costs. The count in Marathon County finished Dec. 9.
County Clerk Nan Kottke estimated that the recount would cost about $113,000. As many as 15 poll workers and municipal clerks every day helped count ballots by hand in the Assembly Room at the Marathon County Courthouse, with a sheriff’s deputy on hand.
Much of the cost associated with the recount are from county and election worker salaries. Kottke estimated in a report to the state that the recount would require 15 workers at $15 per hour to count the 69,957 ballots in Marathon County, plus salaries for county employees, the corporation counsel and a sheriff’s deputy to guard the room. Also included was some $3,000 for mileage for municipal workers who also helped with the recount. Kottke hasn’t yet figured out the actual costs as the recount delayed her other clerk duties.
The county revealed no machine errors, Kottke says, and any anomalies came from voters themselves, who in some cases circled a name instead of filling in a bubble, or wrote “NO” over a candidate’s name.
The state will be reimbursing the county for the costs of the recount, County Finance Director Kristi Kordus says. The results of the recount can be found at elections.wi.gov.
